{"id":1121,"date":"2007-06-29T17:54:21","date_gmt":"2007-06-29T17:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html"},"modified":"2007-06-29T17:54:21","modified_gmt":"2007-06-29T17:54:21","slug":"studio-60-finally-turns-out-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html","title":{"rendered":"“Studio 60” Finally Turns Out The Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I have been enjoying the respite that the final episodes of now cancelled “Studio 60” have given me this month amidst the summer wasteland of TV reruns and reality junk, I have to say that Thursday\u2019s season finale–which ironically lead the series at long last to win the night<\/a> in the ratings–was a reminder of why the show was so frustrating for fans and critics alike. <\/a>
\nAfter the last three weeks<\/a> of juggling multiple storylines which included flashbacks to the show after 9\/11, cast member Tom\u2019s soldier brother being captured in Iraq, exec Jordan McDeere having severe pregnancy complications, and the ongoing tumultuous romance between Matt and Harriet, last night\u2019s episode finally brought the four-episode arc as well as the series to an end. The lackluster finale showed how producer\/writer Aaron Sorkin can sometimes be a victim of his own genius because he set up too many scenarios in need of dramatic pay-off and made us care about too many characters to effectively bring a authentic resolution to the world he created.
\nAt the end of one of the longest nights in television history, we never truly got the whole story of what happened regarding Matt and Danny\u2019s firing, and we had to settle for a bunch of neat, tidy, and unrealistic endings to the other plot points. Jordan miraculously recovered, Tom\u2019s brother was saved, and Matt and Harriet are back together again. All of these happy endings go against the complex and often chaotic nature of Sorkin\u2019s characters.
\nAre we really to believe that Matt and Harriet will live happily ever after? Wouldn\u2019t a more realistic and thought-provoking statement have been made if Tom\u2019s brother unfortunately was killed despite all efforts to save him? Worst of all, for all of the show\u2019s pondering of the importance of religion in how our country\u2019s culture is shaped, no one on the show seems to have come very far spiritually as a new day dawns, not even Harriet. For those of us that have been followers of not only “Studio 60” but “Sports Night” and “The West Wing,” it felt like we were cheated just a little bit.
\nBut while I may be unsatisified with the series end, I will still be looking forward to the DVD<\/a> release this fall, for which Sorkin will be providing commentary for the episodes. Maybe then I will get some of the missing answers I wish I would have seen last night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I have been enjoying the respite that the final episodes of now cancelled “Studio 60” have given me this month amidst the summer wasteland of TV reruns and reality junk, I have to say that Thursday\u2019s season finale–which ironically lead the series at long last to win the night in the ratings–was a reminder…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,22,21],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","tag-christian","tag-culture-wars","tag-studio-60"],"yoast_head":"\n"Studio 60" Finally Turns Out The Lights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Studio 60" Finally Turns Out The Lights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While I have been enjoying the respite that the final episodes of now cancelled “Studio 60” have given me this month amidst the summer wasteland of TV reruns and reality junk, I have to say that Thursday\u2019s season finale–which ironically lead the series at long last to win the night in the ratings–was a reminder…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-06-29T17:54:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/Studio60.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kris Rasmussen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Studio 60\" Finally Turns Out The Lights","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Studio 60\" Finally Turns Out The Lights","og_description":"While I have been enjoying the respite that the final episodes of now cancelled “Studio 60” have given me this month amidst the summer wasteland of TV reruns and reality junk, I have to say that Thursday\u2019s season finale–which ironically lead the series at long last to win the night in the ratings–was a reminder…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2007-06-29T17:54:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/Studio60.jpg"}],"author":"Kris Rasmussen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html","name":"\"Studio 60\" Finally Turns Out The Lights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/Studio60.jpg","datePublished":"2007-06-29T17:54:21+00:00","dateModified":"2007-06-29T17:54:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/667195b00ac2263e0f6700056170bbf8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/Studio60.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/Studio60.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/06\/studio-60-finally-turns-out-th.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Studio 60” Finally Turns Out The Lights"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/667195b00ac2263e0f6700056170bbf8","name":"Kris Rasmussen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/2e7\/2e7278d93dd11c6aad2c82da37f0d657x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/2e7\/2e7278d93dd11c6aad2c82da37f0d657x96.jpg","caption":"Kris Rasmussen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/krasmussen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}